The Division made a big splash out of the gate, setting new Ubisoft sales records in its first 24 hours of release. That success continued over its first full week, which the publisher said was the biggest first week ever for a new game franchise: It pulled in an estimated $330 million globally in its first five days, and achieved 1.2 million peak concurrent users over the weekend.
That, for the sake of comparison, is the same concurrent player peak as Dota 2 this month. The multi-platform vs. PC-exclusive comparison might not be fair (and just to note, The Division has an all-time peak concurrent user count of 114,000 on Steam), but any game that's moving in that territory, under any circumstances, is obviously doing something right.
“The Division taking the top spot in the industry for first-week sales of a new franchise is a tremendous achievement. We are very proud of our teams, and humbled by and thankful for the millions of players who are giving us their feedback and support,” Ubi CEO Yves Guillemot said. “The Division is the latest example yet of our unique ability to deliver immersive gaming playgrounds that keep players engaged, and that they eagerly share with their friends and community.”
Despite the chest-puffing (which in this case, I think, is at least a little bit warranted), that last bit about player engagement is actually kind of interesting. Ubi's online services VP Stephanie Perotti said the high levels of player engagement demonstrate “that our investments in our online infrastructure and services are paying off,” and that was reflected in the relatively smooth launch of the game. The first few hours were rough, but things were corrected relatively quickly and seem to have gone fairly smoothly since then, and despite the huge weekend numbers there were no widespread reports of trouble. You can argue about The Division's merits as a game, but as a relatively free-from-grief online experience, it's undeniably impressive.
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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.
